Maximum PC 9600gt RSS Feed

Asus Lays Claim to World's Most Intelligent Graphics Card

Chris Moody — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:48:41 -0500

Asus has laid claim to launching the world's most intelligent graphics card with the release of their ROG (Republic of Gamers) EN9600GT MATRIX/HTDI/512M. Asus goes on to say, “Much like a sci-fi movie where the protagonists can do just about anything, the ROG MATRIX Series will allow gamers to unleash the true power of graphics cards.” Can you smell the hype? I love the smell of hype in the morning.

The MATRIX card has the ASUS Super Hybrid Engine for automatic detection and adjustments of voltage, clock setting, and fan speeds to achieve “the ultimate in performance or maximum energy saving”. Additionally, the Hybrid Cooler technology offers extreme or silent cooling according to gamer needs. It includes their iTracker software to provide 5 scenario GUI modes for easy user selection of their preferred usage.

Asus goes on to claim that a 26% performance boost in 3D mode can be achieved; while 26% less power consumption and 0dB cooling can also be guaranteed under the 2D mode. It calculates all this on the fly making the adjustments in real time. Basically it sounds like automatic over/under clocking dependant on load.

The MATRIX’s Hybrid Cooler adjusts fan speed for load, ramping up fan RPMs when it needs cooling and lowering it when the card is not under stress to conserve power. I can dig the power savings aspect given today’s energy prices.

The card looks cool, it reads cool, it’s got some cool sounding names for its components, but I’m interested it how it performs. The hybrid cooler is neat, but my almost two year old laptop has been doing the same thing, it's not that exciting. Asus targeted this for the middle of the road market by using Nvidia’s 9600GT Chipset versus the GTX 260/280 series, or even the 9800 series. We’ll have to wait for shipping cards for an in-depth look to see if it lives up to being as intelligent as Asus claims it to be.

Specifications

Model	EN9600GT MATRIX/HTDI/512M
Graphics Engine	GeForce 9600GT
Video Memory	512M DDR3
Engine Clock	650 MHz
Shader Clock	1625MHz
Memory Clock	1.8GHz (900MHz DDR3)
Memory Interface	256 bit
DVI Max. Resolution	2560 * 1600
Bus Standard	PCI Express 2.0
DVI Output	DVI-I
HDCP compliant	YES
HDMI Output	YES**
D-Sub Output	YES, via DVI to D-Sub adaptor
HDTV Output	YES, via HDTV Out cable
TV Output	YES, via S-Video to Composite
Adaptor/Cable Bundled	DVI-to-D-Sub adaptor HDTV-out cable Power Cable
Software Bundled	ASUS Utilities & Driver
Notes	The card size is 4.376 inches x 9 inches

EVGA e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC Edition

Michael Brown — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:06:23 -0500

There’s never been a better time to be in the market for a new videocard. Nvidia’s GeForce 9600 GT, represented here by EVGA’s overclocked SSC Edition, is one reason this is true.

We awarded AMD’s Radeon 3870 a Kick Ass award in our January 2008 issue when it was selling for $260. When the 9600 GT hit the market, the average street price for cards based on the 3870 plunged to $206. EVGA’s implementation of the 9600 GT was selling for $215 when we benchmarked it, but the average price for cards based on that part was just $182.

The 9600 GT is based on Nvidia’s G94 GPU, a cut-down derivative of the G92 that forms the more powerful 8800 GT and the even faster 8800 GTS (the version with 512MB of memory, not the ones with 640MB and 320MB frame buffers). By “cut down,” we mean all three chips share the same basic architecture, but the 9600 GT has 64 stream processors compared to 112 procs in the 8800 GT and 128 in the 8800 GTS.

EVGA upped the core clock to 740MHz (from a stock 650MHz) and the 512MB of memory to 975MHz (from a stock 900MHz). Nvidia’s ace in the hole is its ability to run the stream processors at a higher clock rate than the core, which helps explain how the 64 processors in the 9600 GT can outrun the 320 stream processors in AMD’s Radeon HD 3870. EVGA bumped them from a stock 1.625GHz to 1.835GHz.

If your interests lie more in film than gaming, you’ll be pleased to know that the 9600 GT has the PureVideo HD circuitry that allows it to offload from the host CPU all the decoding work needed to play high-definition movies on Blu-ray and soon-to-be-obscure HD DVD discs.

Daily News Brief: NVIDIA 9600GT and 9800GX2 Revealed!

Paul Lilly — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:38:21 -0600

Details Emerge on GeForce 9600GT and 9800GX2

The first graphics card based on NVIDIA's mainstream D9M core has made an appearance on corporate roadmaps as the 9600GT. Reference specs for the 9600GT call for a 650MHz core clock, 1625MHz unified shader clock, and 900MHz memory clock. Best of all, the new mainstream offering will come with a 256-bit memory bus, up from 128-bit found on the 8600GT, giving the 9600GT 57.6GB/s of memory bandwidth. It's still unknown how many shaders or stream processors will show up on the 65nm D9M core, but NVIDIA did indicate DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 2.1, and PCI-E 2.0 support. Looking higher end, [H]ardOCP posted pics and specs of the GeForce 9800GX2, which will succeed the 8800 Ultra. Final specs are still up in the air, but think dual-GPUs, 1GB frame buffer, two PCBs, and 256 stream processors - tasty!

Hard Drives Profitable

Despite rock bottom pricing per gigabyte (500GB for $100? Yes please!), market research firm Isuppli has noted a return to profitability in the HDD sector. Hard drive shipments rose 19.6 percent in Q3 2007 to 138 million drives, with both Seagate and Western Digital showing strong gross margins. Senior analyst Krishna Chander attributes the growth to electronic gadgets, along with HDTVs driving the market for digital video recorders.

Overstock.com Co-Founder Resigns

Overstock.com co-founder Jason Lindsey resigned as CEO, president, and board member earlier this week after coming out of retirement in April 2006 to help rebuild the company. Lindsey expects to oversee special projects at Overstock on a part-time basis, as well as spend time on "outside ventures." But could there be more to the story? Lindsey checks in as the third board member to resign from Overstock in 2007, and the company hasn't posted a profit since late 2004.

Apple Sweetens to Blu-ray

It appears Apple is choosing Blu-ray over HD-DVD, with an announcement expected at this month's Macworld Expo as Apple outlines their high definition video strategy. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu said some Macs are set to ship with Blu-ray drives, but also noted there is "a smaller chance Apple may use a combo Blu- ray/HD-DVD drive to ensure full compatibility and not get involved in the format wars." Apple is currently a member of the Blu-ray Association, but has thus far observed the ongoing HD war from a distance.

Netflix and LG Go Streaming

Netflix got a boost of interest from movie watchers after Blockbuster's latest round of price hikes, and it looks to only get better for Netflix subscribers. With the help of LG Electronics, Netflix is gearing up to offer streaming movies directly to TVs through a set-top box. Limited amounts of streaming content are included in all of Netflix's rental plans, but there's a caveat - early speculation has LG putting the receiver into their pricey $799 Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo player.

WirelessHD Standard Ratified

While the high definition war wages on, the battle against HDTV cable clutter scored a victory. The WirelessHD 1.0 specification was ratified, which operates on the unlicensed 60GHz frequencies to transmit high definition signals to HDTVs. The MPAA said they will work with the WirelessHD group to ensure protected broadcasts stay secure. The ratification means that manufacturers can now concentrate on product development without worrying about interoperability.